AP 0991: Should I Package My Courses as Separate Modules?

By Pat Flynn on November 7, 2017

AskPat 991 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey. What’s up, everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 991 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me. As always, I’m here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week.

Today, we have a question coming in from Darcie. But, before we get to her question, I do want to thank today’s sponsor which is FreshBooks, the company I’ve mentioned dozens and dozens of times here because I just love them and what they’re doing. They’ve helped me and several other small businesses with managing our business finances, from keeping track of our income to expenses and even invoicing, too. In less than thirty seconds, you can create a professional looking invoice so you can get paid as you bill people in a very professional but quick manner. Check them out for free. You can actually do that by going to FreshBooks.com/askpat and just make sure you enter “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section.

All right. Now, here is today’s question from Darcie.

Darcie Jaremey: Hi, Pat. My name is Darcie Jaremey and I have a website called ErgonomicsHelp.com. I’m at a point now, looking at how to package my course, and I’m wondering if it makes more sense to package each course as separate modules so customers can pick and choose what they want, or if that’s just too confusing and I should bundle them together. What are your thoughts on this and what do you think will be the best move forward? Thanks so much for all you do, Pat. Looking forward to hearing what you say. Bye-bye.

Pat Flynn: Hey, Darcie. Thank you so much for the question. I really appreciate it. I’m a little confused on what you mean by separating out the modules, and/or packaging them together. Every course should stand alone as a series of modules that help you accomplish a specific goal, and that is what you’re selling: A course that has a specific transformation and, within it, there are certain modules. And, within those modules, there are certain lessons that you may be offering multiple courses and you might be able to potentially include them all together in one bigger giant course. But I would say you’re selling a specific transformation, is what you’re doing. To get people from wherever they are at now to where you want them to go, that no matter how many modules it might take is what you want to be selling, and that helps you understand what the price point should be and whatnot.

Now, I can imagine, for example, some niches or some opportunities where there might be something you’re selling and then depending on what people are interested in, you could have them pick and choose which parts of it they actually want because those other ones aren’t really relevant. But having people pick that because they might have different preferences, it’s going to be a little bit too confusing so I would just package it all into one if that’s the case. If it all makes sense to be in one single transformational course and there just happens to be some modules in there that some people may use, some people may not, if that’s the case, then you want to make sure that you tell people really quickly upfront that, hey, this is all included and you go through the ones that make sense for you. Now, just make sure that you make that clear upfront and you want to try and have it be as universal as possible because maybe that other one for the other modules that may be better elsewhere, maybe that’s a separate course, so you could do it that way.

I’ve also seen people create separate courses for different kinds of people in their audience and the courses are essentially the same. However, there might be one, two modules that are just specific to that particular niche. You can have that all in one course or you can create a separate course, include most of the same information but then you have that unique information just for that niche. You can do it that way, too. That way you have multiple offerings that are going to be a little bit more targeted and more likely for a person who’s interested in that thing or who fits that bill of that particular audience member, they’re going to feel that that’s more tailored to them, which it is. Now, that’s a lot more extra work but you could do it either way. Again, I would say whatever is the most simple for you, do that, or else you’re just never going to get anything done. Keep it simple. Keep it easy for yourself and make it clear and set those expectations for your audience so there’s no confusion and then you’ll be all set.

Darcie, I hope that helps and gives you some info that can help you move forward. Thank you so much for your question. I want to send you an AskPat teeshirt for having your question featured here on the show. For those of you listening, if you have a question that you’d like potentially featured here on the show as well, just head on over to AskPat.com. You can ask right there on that page.

As I mentioned in Episode 990, if you go to AskPat.com/solve and you know the answer to that riddle, clues were given since Episode 900, not in every episode, but a few episodes, and if you know what the answer is to that riddle—it’s going to be pretty cryptic if you haven’t been keeping up with AskPat, this is my way to reward you for listening to AskPat and having fun with this little game of mine that I’m playing, and then people who enter the right answer will get put into a drawing. There’s one entry for getting the right answer and a few more by sharing it. You will be given access and the potential to win a thousand dollars. I’m giving away a thousand dollars in every episode next week, so the final five episodes, including Episode 1000 before we move on to the next 2,000, or next segment of AskPat, whatever that might be. I’m looking forward to that and seeing how many people can get it right. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to Episode 900. That’s when the clues begin and you can listen in and potentially make your way through back to here to see what the answers might be. Maybe you’ll get it even earlier, though some of the episodes but not all episodes have clues, but I’m just excited to see what happens, and just want to thank you all for listening to AskPat. I can’t believe we’re closing in on Episode 1000, which is really cool. Anyway, thank you so much again for listening and I appreciate it.

Here’s a quote to finish off the day by Shel Silverstein. “Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” Love you guys. Thanks so much, and I’ll see you in the next episode of AskPat. Bye.

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Show Notes

Darcie has a question about online courses. Should she bundle her courses together or package them as separate modules? Darcie’s website is ErgonomicsHelp.com.

Starting at Episode 900 and leading up to (and including) Episode 1000, I’ve been leaving clues to a puzzle. Next week I’m giving away $1,000 to a random person who solves it, every day! You can also get multiple entries for sharing the podcast. To enter into the drawing go to AskPat.com/solve.